Islam as the better Behaved Buddy of a non-Islamist

 

Educated Hindus love flaunting their pseudo-secularism. It stamps and validates their education begot in the great Indian way through rot cramming of donkey loads of books. It robs simplicity from hearts and breeds bitchy, pretentious brains. They crow at their artificial best when it comes to exaggerating the perils of Hindu fanatics, and downplaying the devilish deeds of Muslim fanatics. Of all the people, Sukh Ram gets abnormally jittery as he falls into the chasm flanked by the two extremities of these two important religions in India. The theoretical knowledge in his books, and his belief that he is true to his image as an educated Indian, tries to pull him out and not think about the sharp edges of comparatives. The fangs of these metallic hard protrusions do a serious harm to his skin. He winces with pain. There are perilous flash-backs and flash-forwards in his scared, buzzing head.  

 

A burly Muslim is soulfully skinning a goat. This trailer image takes him a decade back to a crowded bazaar in east Africa. A blood smeared image rises monstrously. Blood blood all over, on the clothes, hands and face. The figure walks majestically flaunting the feat, ‘Slaughtered 100 goats and skinned them since morning!’ It is evening time. Sukh Ram shudders. He recalls scores of those moments when as a weakling Hindu kid he sat around monsoon puddles to save ants and insects flapping for life in the little sea. The contrast! Scorchingly buzzes an old RSS pracharak’s word.  He was holding shakhas in the countryside to light a lamp of nationalism basically meaning awareness about the Muslim danger: ‘Let us be clear on this! The worst of a Hindu is still better than the best of a Muslim for world peace.’

 

Sukh Ram still tries to convince himself that he is not into comparatives. He but cannot help comparing Hindu Fanaticism with Islamic Extremism! With his limited capabilities and analytical skills he can just compare what he has seen or come across. He decides to take a look at the history sheet of the so called Hindu 'fanatics': ‘At the climax of their nationalistic chauvinism, they have just broken a medieval structure, i.e., Babri Masjid. And that too where? At a place where the supreme icon of my religion was born! So Ramlalla’s religious legacy has been hijacked in the name of justifying secularism on paper and in theory.’ As a Hindu he just cannot spare this heartburn, after all he spares his middle name (almost a surname for him) with the Maryadapurushottam Shri Ram. He just finds it amusing how in the garb of politically lucrative secularism the faith of one billion people has been allowed to be hijacked to politically appease 200 million people. Getting emotional about Shri Ram, who has been denied a temple at a place where he was born, Sukh ram naturally hates the Congress and Co. who in alliance with regional satraps like Mullah Mulayam have ensured that political gains theory considers Muslims as the most important element in vote-catch theory. ‘Just imagine who is dubbed communal?! The BJP!’ he feels pity for the BJP, the champions of his own faith. He holds a terrible grudge against his faith-brothers and even sisters, ‘Educated Hindus are the most vocal champions of raising dissenting chorus against anything aggressive related to Hinduism!’ Having grown up taking out drowning ants from water puddles, his soft self mollycoddling with the idea of secularism, he still cannot surrender to the Congressite bait of an esteemed self, the secular self. ‘The Congress gets votes for being what they pretend to be, what do I get from forcing myself into belief about something,’ he stamps his unorthodox thoughts not generally expected of an educated Hindu.

 

His souls rants out a long sermon as he closes his eyes and a burly khakhi short clad stick wielding figure tries to rake up a full fire out of the smouldering ambers of doubt and hate:

 

‘Why one billion Hindus are comfortable with the idea of a makeshift tent at Ramlalla’s birthplace? The reason is simple! Hinduism has been left unattended! It is lying in the open to be misinterpreted and misused by all and sundry including both Hindus and non-Hindus. Result is we have so many stigmatized characters, so called Godmen, within Hinduism who bring farce and shame to Hindus. There is nothing left related to Hinduism that cannot be twisted and changed to suit individual, collective, political and social choices. No sinew related to Hinduism is inviolable. If Bhagwat Geeta is lying at a public square, it is not a religious scandal. Somebody might just step on it to move ahead; another may move sideways to go ahead; someone might just pick it up and put at a safe place; and top of it, somebody might just kick it to land it at even worse place. This someone can be anyone, of any religion. When you leave your faith system to be misused at a level, where you end up having godmen like Asha Ram and Rampal, and where the supreme scripture can be kicked without even raising the dust around, where you do not leave even a single sinew related to it inviolable, you weaken yourself as a religioner, as a person, as a race! It is no clarion call to wake up Hindus and go aggressive and all. It is just a comparative situation: “Why one religion is more misinterpreted to be more violent?” ’

 

Sukh Ram gets really disturbed. His hands are nervously twitching, shaking and fumbling to get some support to hold onto the platform where his life-long education wants him to stand, a secular person. Does harbouring doubts about others’ religion means becoming communal? He tries to dispel these notions and clear his conscience as a full follower of the concept, to stamp his credentials that he is modern and progressive, not a religious bigot. He but falls, not being able to find a foothold as the shaky platform shakes even more perilously as the pracharak accentuates the intensity of his soul-stirring message, the comparatives being too glaring:

 

‘In Islam it is just the opposite. Just imagine a Koran instead of Geeta in the incident mentioned above. Do you think even a fanatic Hindu will dare to even come near the Koranic papers?! No!!! Reason is very simple! Islamists have not left even a single thing violable in their domain. That is why Islamists are ruling over their subjects like a hard-woven intact knot for so long and with such force. That is the reason why its holy priests have such influence on the followers. That is the reason why we still see medieval barbaric things being committed by Muslim fanatics.’

 

Sukh Ram feels a painful twist in his guts. He cannot ignore the differentials. He is now somebody who gets afraid at the sight of a hardcore Islamist. He will be far happier and feel safe if things get changed in the Islamic world, if more and more things related to Islam are done and accepted like he the lesser religionist does. ‘That is the only way to break that final knot, to melt that blind adherence to the rigid lines misinterpreted from the original holy lines. It will give me a sense of immense safety if Muslim males, females and children lead normal lives in the normal manner of the current times without causing violent scandals and fatwas,’ he looks at his son playing with the soft, beautiful doll and assures himself that the coming times will be safer for his son primarily and the world secondarily.                    

 

He feels pity for the Tauji in khaki shorts:

 

‘It is even foolish to compare Hindu and Islamic fanaticism. When RSS and company get too agitated what does it result into? Long marches in khaki; lathi training; lessons for patriotism, ineffectual lectures from podiums because what can be expected from educated Hindus and even masses who will just move ahead with this solace that they are paying lip service to secularism. And pseudo secularists crow foul...bloody shitheads. On the contrary only a few Islamic zealots can hold the world peace at bay. No need to mention countless blood-bathed episodes resulting from blind Islamic faith. If we still do it then it sounds like comparing the attacking prowess of a peasant cart with a fighter jet.’

 

Emotional turmoil over, Sukh Ram thinks more about solutions, not just the problem:

 

‘If Islam can be misinterpreted in such dehumanised manner to unleash hell on earth, it is high time we fight to dismantle fatal Islamic stranglehold over its followers. Islam has to be brought under new set of its original holy rules. Its inviolable set of blind, misinterpreted beliefs should be cast away to make it compatible with other religions. Demon creating misquoted lines in Islamic books should be made to appear earthly and violable like any other misguiding book of other religions. Poison sprouting mullahs should be held by their goatee and made to eat raw barley for all this bloodshed. Shame...shame. This earth will be such a nice place without the aggressive, extremist followers of Islam.’

 

He finds himself fidgeting in his chair. Gets terribly scared lest it becomes blasphemy even to have such thoughts within himself. What if some fanatic Maulvi reads his mind and issues fatwa against the kafir? He is scared. It is plain fear. He is well aware of the scores of killings of those having progressive minds. ‘As a Hindu I am naturally inclined to get scared,’ he justifies his fit of scare. But today he has revolted in his mind; revolted invisibly in the safe confines of his chair. He is a full reformer now, unknown, faceless, beyond the reach of any zealous bullet and fatwa. He gets a surge of excitement for being the saviour of humanity, for nurturing revolution in his mind to positively change the fates of almost half of the humanity on earth:  

 

‘The only way the world can be saved from the jehadi type of Islamic deluge is to break the myth of inviolable principles sprung up by the bloodthirsty maulvis who twist lines in the Holy Scriptures to draw abstract, violent meanings. Muslims and non-Muslims both have been chained in the fear of a deadly retaliation if there is any effort to change these misguiding injunctions. Sporadic incidences to change have been met with killings, because these have been tried by individuals. Result is that Islam still appears the primitive faith meant for the older times. The only way change can be forced is to break the myth of inviolability of those who stand against change and hold their own misinterpretations as something written in stone. Let it be a frequent event. Let it be done by faceless institutions at public places so that panic stricken Maulvis do not know who has done it. Let it occur so many times at so many places that it becomes a normal issue like it is with any other religions. Let Islam be like any other peaceful religion. This is the only way to take out common Muslim population from the clutches of Islamic extremists swathed in medieval principles. Once they frequently see the people becoming free from the centuries old blindfolding principles, they will be more receptive to change. Larger forces in the non-Islamic world have to manage it with the help of faceless or not so faceless players.’

 

Reform! Change! Freedom! These heavy words tonk so heavily in his mind that he thinks he might be speaking loud. He gets really scared. Has he spoken loud to make somebody hear it? He prefers that nobody has heard him. It’s better to have it inaudible. It’s better for him, his son, his family. Getting even more scared, he even wants to forget it as a nightmare only.